A Forum for Orthodox Jewish thought on Halacha, Hashkafa, and the social issues of our time.

Friday, November 13, 2015

The Chilul HaShem Increases

Top left - One of the accused awaiting extradition in Israel

Well my worst fears seem to have come true. It appears that
one of the accused scammers is a religious Jew. That can be seen from the black Yarmulke he is wearing in a widely published photograph that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

What this fellow allegedly did along with his a few of his friends
was breathtaking in scope if one listens to the prosecutors charges. Just to
review here is an excerpt of what I wrote just a couple of days ago:

It was reported all over the media yesterday that 3 Jews (2
Israelis and one American) were caught in what is being called the largest ever
theft of customer data from a financial institution. There three crooks
allegedly hacked the website of JP Morgan Chase and other companies and stole
hundreds of millions of dollars. From the Times of Israel:

Prosecutors said the three had been working together since
2007 and that their crimes include artificially inflating stock prices, an
illegal bitcoin exchange, operating online casinos and creating at least 75
shell companies around the world.

“By any measure, the data breaches at these firms were
breathtaking in scope and in size,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news
conference.

According to Reuters, Tuesday’s charges are the first tied
to the JP Morgan attack, which compromised information in 83 million customer
accounts and was the largest theft of customer data from an American financial
institution.

The fact that Jews were once again caught in high financial
crimes is bad enough. How many ‘Bernie Madoffs’ do we need? But when ‘Bernie Madoff’ is wearing a Yarmulke, the Chilul HaShem becomes enormous.

I have often been accused of spreading Lashon Hara about a religious Jew by publishing bad news about him. Let us not hang out our dirty laundry. Besides in America,
one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. More than once I was told that
the only reason a reader even knew about a given case of religious Jews committing
financial fraud - was because I published it. In fact when I was sent this picture by someone who said he
got it from the Wall Street Journal he added that perhaps I shouldn’t publish
it as it would leverage the antisemites of the world.

My answer to him was quite simple. If it's in the Wall Street Journal, the antisemites don't me to leverage
anything. And it isn’t Lashon Hara if the millions of people that read the
Wall Street Journal (many of whom are religious Jews) published it.

The damage is done. Not by me. And not even by the Wall
Street Journal. The damage was done by the greedy narcissistic sociopaths that
could not care less who they hurt or how many people.

The damage by this ‘religious’ Jew to the Jewish people is incalculable.
A religious Jew that used his God given intelligence to enrich himself
regardless of who he hurt in the process. Who knows what kind of people invested because
they thought a reputable firm was suggesting a ’buy’ on a penny stock? It could
have been retirees on fixed incomes investing a large portion of their life
savings. Elderly people are the most vulnerable to these kinds of scams.

It was bad enough when Bernie Madoff did it. But when a Frum
Jew does something like this, well... if he's guilty, I hope they throw the
book at him. Lessons need to be learned. If we can’t instill ethics in all of our
young, maybe the fear of long term jail sentences will. I feel sorry for his
family, but they have only him to blame. If I were his wife I would seek a
divorce with full custody of the children - and never see him again.

How sad it is when someone learns to be observant of the
Mitzvos enough to wear a Kipa in pubic but has absolutely no problem hurting
millions of people financially just so he can enrich himself! This is not
Judaism. But this fellow thinks it is, apparently.

And there better not be any appeals from the holy rollers
about Pidyan Shvuyim because that will be even more condemnable. It will
increase the Chilul HaShem to major proportions if recognizably Frum Jews - or
worse organizations that are lead by prominent
Orthodox rabbis - have pity on a criminal just because he's ‘Frum’!

Now that it is out in public. a public condemnation is in order. As a religious Jew, I feel obligated to shout it from the rooftops. It may not counter the
Chilul HaShem completely, but at least those who read these words will know
that Orthodox Judaism completely rejects this behavior and indeed those of us who practice it and try to live by all of its principles - are disgusted by it!

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.